Bretton Woods has a porcupine on its Canopy Tour zip line, or at least it did. I saw it once in winter. It was not zipping, but snoozing, as the snow fell on some of its 30,000 quills.

Porcupines are active year-round in New Hampshire.

Mostly, they are just a docile rodent who, from time to time, will lose quills after a bit of dog conflict.

They are best known for their corkscrew quills and for lining the pockets of veterinarians.

They sit quietly munching in trees, or waddle along the ground.

Clues that porcupines are around include ground littered with short twigs of hemlock.

I was on the phone with my friend, Ward, recently and he told me he was on the zip line. He said he did not know that there was a porcupine among those trees there, but there is a YouTube video out there and it shows evidence in the same spot I saw the critter.

When you are on the rope bridge, look off to your left. The porcupine I saw was in that tree about 30 feet off the ground.

Porcupines break twigs off the larger branches, chew off the tasty needle tips and toss the rest away.

Chewed bark is another sign of the prickly creature.

Porcupine scat looks like a pile of brown elbow macaroni. Porcupines are active mostly at night, but they will move around in the daylight.

September through early December is their breeding season. Between next April and August, females will give birth to one cute little porcupette.

Porcupines also love a storm.

They become busy eating up storm-strewn bark, twigs and acorns when it is over.

They prefer not to eat dogs but they will attack when attacked. And usually they win.

Porcupines are best known for defending themselves with their quills. Quills can be up to three inches long.

Contrary to popular perception, porcupines cannot "throw" their quills, but if another animal comes into contact, the quills release easily. Once embedded, quills work their way deeper and deeper into an animal's skin (up to an inch a day!), so they should be removed as soon as possible.

Porcupines don't have quills all over -- just on their backs. That's why they lower their heads and turn their back when threatened. Coyotes, bobcats, owls and especially fishers prey on porcupines.

April 17 was reopening day of the Bretton Woods Canopy Tours zip line. They closed for a while at the end of the ski season but are open most all winter as well.

If you take a spring trip there, you might see your first porcupette, though there are no guarantees.

It is really fun to zip through the tree canopy and great so long as you are not afraid of heights, in fairly good physical shape and are close to adult size.

If you want more information about the zip line at Bretton Woods you can get it at www.brettonwoods.com or call 603-278-4ZIP.